A Bollywood director who was jailed for raping an American research scholar in 2015 has had his conviction overturned by an Indian judge ruling that the victim had not protested strongly enough.

Mahmood Farooqui, 39, was found guilty of the attack in March 2015 by a fast-track court hearing the case in New Delhi.

This week, a judge in Delhi ruled that despite verbal and physical protests, it may not have been clear to the Farooqui that the victim did not consent as 'a feeble no may mean yes' - especially among 'academically proficient' people.

Mahmood Farooqui was found guilty of the attack by a fast-track court hearing the case in New Delhi in 2015 but the conviction has now been overturned and he could soon walk free from jail

The victim, then aged 35, had traveled to India to seek Farooqui's assistance with her research when the attack took place at his home in an upscale area of the capital.

But now the Delhi High Court has questioned the victim's account and whether Farooqui understood the lack of consent, according to the Indian Express.

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'Instances of woman behaviour are not unknown that a feeble no may mean a yes,' Justice Ashutosh Kumar said.

The director, who had served just over two years of his seven year sentence, had long denied the allegations against him

He said that a 'feeble no' would be enough if the parties were strangers or if one of them was 'a conservative person'.

However, he argued, 'But [the] same would not be the situation when parties are known to each other, are persons of letters and are intellectually/academically proficient, and if in the past there have been physical contacts,' he said.

'In such cases, it would be really difficult to decipher whether little or no resistance and a feeble no was actually a denial of consent.'

Farooqui has now been acquitted of the crime.

The director, who had served just over two years of his seven year sentence, had long denied the allegations against him.

During the appeal trial, his lawyer challenged the victim's rape claim and suggested that the two were in fact in a relationship.

'In a relationship when people are attracted to each other, things do happen. But it does not mean it's rape,' the lawyer said.

Farooqui was married at the time of the assault and was found guilty of rape in 2016.

Farooqui (pictured here with his wife Anusha Risvi) had become 'close family friends' with the then 35-year-old woman, who is of Indian origin, after helping her with her thesis

The woman returned to the US shortly after the incident but came back to report the matter to police.

The case was hailed as a landmark decision that tested the nation's modified rape statute to include forced oral sex.

India introduced tough laws against sex offenders in the wake of the fatal gang-rape of a Delhi student in the capital in December 2012 that sparked mass street protests.

Farooqui is best known for his film Peepli Live, which explores the divide between urban and rural India. It was produced by Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan.

Farooqui co-directed it with his wife Anusha Rizwi, who had earlier dismissed the complaint against her husband as 'manipulated and false'.